Steam & Excursion > This Is An Interesting Locomotive With A Colorful History!

Certain steam locomotives seem to have 9-lives like a cat.  This little 0-4-0T may just fit that description.

Built by Porter in 1913, she was ordered by the Mountain Quarries Railroad to work out of Flint, California as part of the Pacific Portland Cement Company as their #202.  She was used to shuttle the cement filled cars around the plant while larger power delivered them to the Southern Pacific near Auburn, California.

When she was done there she went to McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Company to work their tie plant.  When that work was done a railfan , Erick Thomasen, bought her and used her in the East Bay yards for a number of years.  That is what we see in this photo taken in the 1950's.

#202 was the first locomotive to be used in 1976 in the revival of the Virginia & Truckee RR out of Virginia City, Nevada.  She was given the #3 for that service.  Later she went to the Silverbend Farm in Clarksburg, California where she saw many years of service.  She was stored there in Clarksburg after that operation closed.  She went to Auburn, California in 2005 to be on display for a while and in 2012 returned to Auburn to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mountain Quarries Railroad.

Today she is part of the Chris Baldo collection in Willits, California where she is waiting her turn to be returned to operation.  #202 does not seem to have live out all her 9-lives yet.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 02:21 by LoggerHogger.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:

> When she was done there she went to McCormick &
> Baxter Creosoting Company to work their tie
> plant.  When that work was done a railfan , Erick
> Thomasen, bought her and used her in the East Bay
> yards for a number of years.  That is what we see
> in this photo taken in the 1950's.

The date is circa 1959 and the location is the former Key System Bridge Yards in Oakland, CA.  See: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,870322

I'm pretty sure this is the same locomotive I found outside WP's oakland roundhouse in 1961.

She really is tiny, even as 0-4-0T's go.  What I noticed is that the top of her coupler extends well above the bottom of the smokebox.

Gordon

Very cute little engine, but well proportioned.  I've encountered it a few times over the years.  Glad to hear Chris Baldo has it and there is a chance it will steam again.

Z

McCormack & Baxter plant, the one in Portland Oregon?   Our son/s EPA dive team last month completed a project checking on the condition of the their pollution cap in the Willamette, site is below the University of Portland.   Arlen

asheldrake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> McCormack & Baxter plant, the one in Portland
> Oregon?  .   Arlen

No- Stockton, California.

Martin

# 202 was also used on an even earlier "revival" of the V&T during the mid 1960's. It was apparently leased to them.The Nevada State Heritage group built a loop of track at the Carson City airport. # 202 pulled V&T tunnel car # 57 which was converted to haul people. V&T 4-6-0 # 27, and V&T RPO # 21 (2nd) were also displayed there. If I recall they operated only one or two years before the airport runway was extended breaking the loop. Later NSH acquired the former V&T equipment from Paramount Pictures. That equipment formed the basis for what has evolved into the Nevada State RR Museum in Carson City. I took the attached photo with a cheap 620 box camera when I was about ten years old in the mid 1960's. The scan is from a small print, so it's not very good quality. At the time of the photo the loop track had sections of it already removed.     Don Marenzi



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 11:22 by west.

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I fired for Karl Koenig a couple of times when I worked for the railroad in Virginia City... the only bad thing was that there is an 8" airpump installed on the fireman's side in the cab that was the pits to work around.  But the engine was built as a one-man engine - if you can get Chris Baldo to shoot images, there are extension handles that go from the oil valve and damper control over to the engineer's side.

Joel Kirk

Small version of the Varney Docksider, my first HO engine!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA